Match Discussion: Round 4 vs Panthers @ Pepper Stadium

[Pedge1971]

Also watching a kid like Cleary should make it abundantly clear to anyone why Lamb is nothing special.

Cleary playing behind a pack that is destroying not being destroyed. Oh and Martin has been good too. A little unfair to compare him to Lamb but yes our kid needs to improve.

 

[Pedge1971]

After watching the game tonight I'm bitterly disappointed. Some of our "tackles" were a disgrace and it looked like boys up against men for most of the match. I'm not quite sure what happened to be honest. I know we were 1/3 from the first few rounds but we weren't being physically beaten up, we lost v Warriors and Souffs because we didn't hold the ball, yet we held our own in the middle. Whereas in this game we got absolutely murdered up the middle. I can't understand why our line-speed was so slow all game. We literally just allowed them to run 10 metres before contact and another 6 or 7 after contact. It was terrible to watch just how inferior we were.

To be fair we're not the only team that Penrith will embarrass like that in 2017, anything less than top 4 for that team will be a serious underachievement and I hope we learn our lesson.

I can forgive the occasional game like this but if we don't turn up with a significantly improved performance next week I'll be really concerned.

Browns tinkering by making 5 changes for 1 injury with Elliot did not help. Neither did Henry's bias. At the end of the day we just came up against a bloody good footy side and were outgunned. Life goes on next week.

 

[Pedge1971]

Yeah if there's one big misconception out there among some NRL fans it's that all players need time to show what they can do. Sometimes you do just know. Lamb might make a first grader, but Cleary is pure class. It's why I hated the Hodko signing from day one, always felt some gun young halves would come through and we had wasted our war chest on this dud with no upside. Just imagine a Taylor or Cleary in our team over Hodko. Wouldn't matter in a game like tonight but it would matter a lot in most games.

Behind our pack last year and tonight both those kids would struggle. Have to remember Penrith has basically kept the nucleus of a premiership u20's team together, built an academy and combined that with some really astute signings. Cleary started there 7 years ago.

I think in pre season we all said this was likely to happen in some games this year. Glad it eas this mob and not another also ran.

 

[Pedge1971]

Why did they have 60+% possession though? Wasn't an accident[/QUOTE

Henry Peirenara?

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

This year is his make or break year, he got a complete free pass in 2016 but if we don't improve significantly on the field and in the 2018 roster, he's done.

Id give him until the end of the year to show some spark. Given how shitty the team was when he first got here, i wouldnt even review his performance until the end of this year....

We cant just dump him and look for someone else now, for no other reason than we would never sign anyone better!!! We gave Stone one year then shafted him, we give browny under 2 years then shaft him, do we really think someone brilliant will think this is a place he wants to come to?

For me, i say stick to Browny and hope it comes together. I dont think ANOTHER change will fix much.....

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I agree, regardless of the results so far I still think Brown is the best coach we can have in our current situation, and sacking him would just be another step backwards. Like others on here I also want to see significant improvement this year but the reality is that sometimes it's just not your night and you get badly beaten. Even great teams get smashed sometimes, does anyone remember the 2008 grand final? Melbourne lost 40-0 and that is still considered to be one of the greatest teams in the modern era. Even over the last couple of years I bet you could find plenty of examples where the top teams occasionally get spanked by a better side.

I don't think Penrith could have been much better to be honest. Very few errors, silky set plays and a generally good kicking game to go along with it. The ref blowing the pea out of the whistle every time we were defending didn't help either because it just gave them more possession and you could see how tired our boys were getting.

We were always going to get a reality check at some point this year and I'd rather it comes early on because hopefully we can learn from it and be a lot better next week.

 

[Zoidberg]

Give Brown his 3 years. If we don't make top 8 next year then have a look into a change. He's had a big mess to clean up with the salary cap and roster. We knew there was going to be pain in this rebuild, and we can't simply "turn a corner" and be great, we just have to keep improving.

 

[slotmachine]

That wasn't an improvement on 2016.

Can someone forward this to Hodko please

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

Give Brown his 3 years. If we don't make top 8 next year then have a look into a change. He's had a big mess to clean up with the salary cap and roster. We knew there was going to be pain in this rebuild, and we can't simply "turn a corner" and be great, we just have to keep improving.

I don't see how we will be a top 8 team next year unless we sign a few props, 2 centres and a dominant half.

 

[Jono078]

This is what bothers me most about the Knights; We don't rush up in a line in defense. We sit on our line far too much and that's why teams are making AT LEAST 10m per run.

Until we fix that we won't be keeping teams to less than 20 points, forcing errors and building our own confidence.

Last night the Panthers were just about at the top of their game and we were not, so it was always going to be a tough night.

But the one thing I can't cop is the sitting on our line in defense, we have to meet them half way at the very least, because we've demonstrated we can be good in the tackle and dominate players when they want to.

 

[Zoidberg]

We rush up if the opposition is coming out of their own 10m. We need that speed all the time, anywhere on the field.

 

[TheFrog]

Where the Knights are now is where the Panthers were 5 years ago. We were getting beaten by your team by scores like 35-0, 34-14 and 32-14. This was a much more determined effort than last year's game when it was 36-0 in the second half alone. Also you didn't have much luck with the calls.

It's just a cycle really. It will come around again.

 

[Knight76]

Plus, if you look at the good teams in defence they move forward and back as 1 line, Shoulder to Shoulder, like a wave.

They slide to follow the ball again, shoulder to shoulder. To the edge of the field they mark man on man.

Our line just doesn't slide well at all, and once the ball is out to the Centre/Wing region it is a lottery what those players will do. Jump out of the line leaving your winger stranded, Not trust your centre to make a tackle and leave the wing allowing the overlap etc.

You can't anchor yourself on your line and wait for the player to hit the line.

Last night I thought the only time we really looked like we rolled up the field with momentum was when Ross and I think it might have been Sio I can't recall, came in and made the first two hitups of the set, that got us on the front foot.

We did practically everything wrong last night. Perenara made some horrible calls but they didn't cost us the game.

If I were brown I'd spend all week practicing coming up in a line, then sliding across field as one line following the ball. Then run drill time and again of players attacking our wings at the centre and having the winger stay out.

If we can do that, most of the tries from our edges will cease.

 

[Pomoz]

Behind our pack last year and tonight both those kids would struggle. Have to remember Penrith has basically kept the nucleus of a premiership u20's team together, built an academy and combined that with some really astute signings. Cleary started there 7 years ago.

I think in pre season we all said this was likely to happen in some games this year. Glad it eas this mob and not another also ran.

An astute comment and I hope it gives you guys hope. People have mocked Gus's "five year plan", but unless you have deep pockets (Roosters, Broncos) you can't just get a cheque book out and build a team. You need to build form the ground up. It just takes time. I have seen my team (Panthers) cop plenty of hidings as we have started the long journey towards being competitive. Cartwright, Blake and Yeo played in plenty of floggings as they built their experience up. They were ridiculed for some of their performances as well. "Missed too many tackles, too many errors, bad hands" and so on. Plenty wanted Blake dropped and sold when he made mistakes after 5 first grade games. Thankfully, management are smarter than that and persevered with him.

Those in the know say you need fifty first grade games before you are a proper, hardened first grader and that takes at least two years. Your boys need more time.

 

[slotmachine]

You went out and bought tamou and Merrin.
Let me know when the knights can sign rep forwards.

 

[Glendale]

You went out and bought tamou and Merrin.
Let me know when the knights can sign rep forwards.

You missed the point. They wouldn't have signed Merrin and Tamou five years ago, would they? But now that the rebuilding phase of the five year plan is over they are now attractive to rep players.

 

[Burwood]

You missed the point. They wouldn't have signed Merrin and Tamou five years ago, would they? But now that the rebuilding phase of the five year plan is over they are now attractive to rep players.

Oh, it's extremely convenient how you overlook them signing World Cup internationals in Clint Newton and Cameron Ciraldo for the 2012-13 seasons!

 

[Pomoz]

Oh, it's extremely convenient how you overlook them signing World Cup internationals in Clint Newton and Cameron Ciraldo for the 2012-13 seasons!

Lol. You know what, they were absolutely bucketed by fans but they were great for our club. Gus was interviewed about his, ahem, rather average signings and he said this (from memory not word for word), "Ciraldo and Newton maybe journeyman, but they have been brilliant for us. They have brought exactly the right attitude and professionalism that we needed and have set a great example for our youngsters. When I spoke to them about coming here I told them it would be tough and would be like a shift down the mines, but they still wanted to come. I only hired them after people told me what great people they were and what great values they have".

I'm not sure Ciraldo and Newton enjoyed being called journeyman, but he has praised them often enough. Right now Newcastle could do with a good few seasoned pros, journeyman with the right attitude.

 

[betcats]

You missed the point. They wouldn't have signed Merrin and Tamou five years ago, would they? But now that the rebuilding phase of the five year plan is over they are now attractive to rep players.

Exactly. Chris Armit, Cameron Ciraldo, Clint Newton, Wes Nawaima..these were the players we were singing in the first year or two of Gus being here. Then it was Peter Wallace, Jeremy Latimore, Brent Kite and Jaime Soward off the scrap heap. Along the way we managed to pick up a couple great young guys looking for a better shot at first grade like Whare, Seggy and Mansour but the reality is most panthers fans including myself couldn't see the point of these signings but last year in an interview with Sterlo Gus actually credited guys like newton and armit for giving Penrith back some "respect in the player market". We threw big money at a number of rep players early on is gus' tenure and were turned for less at other clubs. Since Gus came on the amount of Joyrneymen and reserve graders we've signed has been massive, etu Ueasale, Tom Humble, Isaac John, Luke Capewell, Mitch Achurch, Matt Robinson, travis Robinson... the list goes on...all these guys were signed from reserve grade or super league and all are back there but they all got FG games for us, quite a lot for a lot of them. We had no chance of going out and singing real stars for years after Gus arrived.

 

[Fangs]

I think the salary cap mainly held us back from signing stars early in Gus' tenure. Sure we became more respectable as the years went by but I have no doubt Gould could have nabbed just about anyone.

The clear factor here is Gould. Just about all of our players have mentioned 'culture' as a reason to sign with Penrith. Gould sold the vision of the club so well that any player in the game is keen to come to the club. Hell, he almost got Johnathon Thurston to come from North QLD to Penrith!